I just watched a "Very Special Episode" Now I love Joss even more

Goby

Goby

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My son and I are watching "Family Ties." It's a clean sitcom from the 80's.

I'm sure most of you have heard Joss say that he hated "A very special episode." (AVSE) It's on one of the extras (I think it's Tara and Willow's first kiss). Well, we've watched several AVSE of Family Ties and they are terrible!!

The first was when the favorite aunt of the daughter, Mallory, died. He's what happened:

We see Aunt Trudy for the first time in the entire series. She's on the screen for five minutes, then she dies. Then for 20 minutes we see Mallory morn and "deal with death." It's so lame, because we don't care about Aunt Trudy. We don't know her, and we have no idea why Mallory is mourning because we've NEVER seen or heard of Aunt Trudy before this episode.

Family Ties has a lot of AVSEs. And each time they solve the problem, or deal with the issue, without any background. Thus the viewer has no connection to the "problem." If it ends well, we never see the character who was in peril EVER AGAIN!!!!

I'm so thrilled that Joss never had any AVSE. When he deals with an "issue" (like homosexuality) he does it over a number of seasons. Or when we see the rape scene, its based on years of knowing the characters. Or any of the other big events in the Whedonverse (I don't want to state any spoilers) is done after we've fallen in love with the characters, or when a person has dealt with the issue for a season.

After watching the Whedonverse, I'm spoiled.

So.... have any of you seen AFSE and just hated it?
 
It was the 80's. Television back then was a different landscape. Comparing Joss's work to it is just silly.

Yes, Whedon did some great things, but television as a whole has matured.
 
Well I'm glad Buffy didn't have any AVSE cause I don't think it fit with the theme of the show but as a whole I don't mind them. I used to watched Family Ties and Blossom and all that back when and I don't know, I think the "a very special episode" has it's charm. 🙂 Like the Scourge said, it was a whole different tv-landscape back then, and it was a way of bringing up serious topics. So yeah, though I don't miss them I certainly don't mind them.

And I do think that there's some hints of it still in a lot of tv-shows today (just that they don't declare that "it's a very special episode". The Body could've been announced as a very special episode e.g. and I'm sure several other episodes when you think about it. Albeit more mature AVSE perhaps.)
 
Taake said:
Well I'm glad Buffy didn't have any AVSE cause I don't think it fit with the theme of the show but as a whole I don't mind them. I used to watched Family Ties and Blossom and all that back when and I don't know, I think the "a very special episode" has it's charm. 🙂 Like the Scourge said, it was a whole different tv-landscape back then, and it was a way of bringing up serious topics. So yeah, though I don't miss them I certainly don't mind them.

And I do think that there's some hints of it still in a lot of tv-shows today (just that they don't declare that "it's a very special episode". The Body could've been announced as a very special episode e.g. and I'm sure several other episodes when you think about it. Albeit more mature AVSE perhaps.)
Click to expand...

Great point about "The Body." Would The Body be 1/100 of the show if it was Aunt Mildred of Schenectady who died instead of Joyce? Or if the whole "magicks" issue involved Buffy's best friend, Natalie, from Los Angeles?

I think Buffy was the first show I ever watched where there are consequences for past actions.
 
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